Interestingly, JMS used that same structure to plot Babylon 5. Series 1 is the introduction, 2 the rising action, 3 the conflict, 4 the conclusion and 5 the denouement

I’ve found that when, with Samurai City, I tried to focus on creating more eastern style structures in the story telling, my brain would constantly try to pull things back to this structure, one of the issues being that the entire overarching plot, as well as the plot for each book/season, began with the catalyst of a body being found (according to elements as they are in The Book Of The Five Rings and then later, Musashi; the first body found in the earth, the second in water etc.), which meant your reader will always expect some sort of end resolution in the way they are used to in ‘solving the murder’ or the story itself feels ‘wrong’. What I decided in the end was to guide only the antagonists and that would let me play loose enough to have almost anti-climatic endings which still feel like they have that weighty resolution needed.

The thing that’s seemingly allowed it to work is that all of the protagonists constantly try to work away from conflict whereas the antagonists always work towards it, so true antagonists seem to go continually unpunished, creating a building feeling despite any anti-climax.

I have no idea how that could be achieved in a shorter time frame, the story is so tied to how it’s told I can’t see any way it could be translated and keep the strength of story without changing the way the story is told. That’s why I decided to tell it in episodes and seasons from the very beginning, in my head it was always something that would be told best on screen, probably as it’s influenced by The Wire so much, so I thought I mayaswell tell it that way straight out of the box…